Hooked on hot-air ballooning

Sullair balloon pilot Shawn Raya inflates his balloon, leading a pack of four who filled the Howell City Park with color on an otherwise gray day for Michigan Challenge Balloonfest's media night. Raya allowed passengers to feel the sensation of a take-off while the balloon remained tethered.(Photo: Gillis Benedict/Livingston Daily)

Story Highlights

There are five scheduled balloon launches and fly-ins, weather permitting, from 6-8 p.m. Friday and from 6-8 a.m. and 6-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 28

Four pilots and their crews inflated hot-air balloons taller than most buildings in Howell City Park on Wednesday evening at a Media Night preview of Michigan Challenge Balloonfest.

The hot-air balloon competition and local festival is happening June 26-28 at Howell High School Complex at 1200 W. Grand River Ave.

Forty-four teams are competing in this year’s 31st Michigan Challenge Balloonfest, which is hosted by the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce. The competition portion of the event is a qualifier sanctioned by the Balloon Federation of America. It focuses the world of hot-air ballooning on Howell for three days each summer.

Balloonfest attracts top-notch balloonists. Japanese pilot Yudai Fujita and Johnny Petrehen, the 2014 World Champion and U.S. National Champion, respectively, will compete.

Reporter steps in balloon’s basket

On Wednesday evening, I stepped into the basket of Jody Leatherberry’s nine-story RE/MAX balloon, which lifted me off the ground. We were attached to tethers and did not soar into the sky. It was raining on and off, so no reporters got a chance to go all the way up in the air.

A launch is a steady rise in a contraption lighter than air. The basket I stood in only came up as high as a tall person’s hips, but I was surprised by how secure I felt once inside.

I watched the Captain America balloon, piloted by Ron Centers, of Portage, speedily launch and sail off into the sky from Howell City Park.

Leatherberry, of Leslie, said the sensation “is like God put you in this space. You are traveling with the wind, so you don’t feel wind in your face and you can hear every sound,” he said.

He told a story about taking blind people up and pointed out how you can hear deer running, smell swamps and listen in on people talking below.

An enormous flame coming out of the burners helps pilots control their altitude. It burns hot enough to get your face warm. Hot-air balloon pilots steer by controlling altitude while simultaneously reacting to wind and weather conditions.

In the competition portion of Balloonfest, teams steer their balloons towards X-shaped targets on the ground. They throw a beanbag with a tail on it, often filled with corn, at the X to score points.

Leatherberry said balloonists try to steer down as low as inches above the ground.

If your hot-air balloon touches the ground, you are disqualified.

Catching the hot-air balloon bug

Balloonfest pilot Sarah Johnson’s first ride in a hot-air balloon was fourteen years ago at a Media Night preview. She now pilots a balloon called Mardi.

She met her husband, Mark Johnson, the manager of Livingston County Spencer J. Hardy Airport, after getting hooked on hot-air ballooning.

The airport is hosting an air-show, fly-in and open house on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit livingstonairshow.com for more information about this new event.

The Johnson couple met through fellow Balloonfest pilot Brian Prokuda, of Deerfield Township, who pilots a balloon called Sunrise. He is the instructor who taught Johnson how to fly.

Learning to fly from Prokuda was “learning precision,” Johnson said.

“You need to know when you’re going to be buoyant and have lift,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of different factors, like wind, the air above you, what you’ve got with you (the weight).”

Prokuda said the only thing that is really controllable is temperature, giving the example that “if winds are gusty, it might pull the balloon faster, so you need to burn a little more often.”

“We have a joke: The first ride was free, but the second ride, for a pilot, costs you $35,000 to $40,000,” Johnson said of catching the bug and investing in equipment.

Balloonfest also is a local festival in Livingston County, where you can watch balloons launch into the air, take the kids to a carnival and an open-air art fair and market, see skydiving shows, marvel at a stunt kite team and catch a Friday night fireworks display.

There are five scheduled balloon launches and fly-ins, weather permitting, from 6-8 p.m. Friday and from 6-8 a.m. and 6-8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, June 28.

Some of the balloon pilots take people up in paid pleasure rides or take event sponsors up. Most people who attend the event keep their feet on the ground and stare up.